Catechist May his Sage Counsels abide by you even to old age which will be much Adorned and Comforted by your early Piety Wherefore see that ye convince a dissolute Age that Youth is as capable of Serious Religion as the Hoary Head by which you will answer the end of your Worthy Pastors Erecting and endowing a School for your Instruction And as for such of his Parishioners as are Aged who have lived some Thirty some Forty years under so Beneficial a Ministry Oh! Think what vast Accounts you have to make to God who will soon require at your hands the improvement of your many Talents What Proficiency then and Profit have you made by the many awakening Sermons and Expostulations you have heard Has your Fruit been answerable to your Tillage Can you not remember the time when your Hearts have been sensibly touch'd and warm'd by his Doctrine and resolved for the ways of God Be ye then stedfast and resolute in all Christian Duty and Conscientious in the discharge of your Vows God lays it to the Charge of the incorrigible Jews that they remained rough and unpolisht notwithstanding he had hewen them by his Servants the Prophets Hos 6. 5. It seems they were so hardened that all the stroaks of their Ministers level'd at their Lusts could not separate them from ' em May no share of this fault ever be laid to your Charge If you have been such ill Husbands for your Souls as not to Record his edifying Sermons yet his Care has left a standing warning to you and to the World Not to deferr your Repentance and to hasten your Peace with God which essential part of Wisdom I pray God encline us all to pursue and practise I must now conclude my Mournful Subject in which my Affection would carry me on and my weighty Subject would bear me out But I should be injurious to such whose Affection to their Deceased Friend has brought them far from their Habitations Let us therefore Pray That as God calls home some of his Faithful Servants so he would be pleased to raise up others in their room particularly to the supply of this place which has now sustain'd such a Loss May the great Shepherd of the Sheep continue Faithful Pastors to such as enjoy so great a Blessing And vouchsafe such to all places that want ' em That the whole Church of God may flourish particularly in these Nations not only in our days but till the Consummation of all things Which God of his infinite Mercy grant through Jesus Christ our Blessed Lord and Saviour Amen FINIS Books Printed for NATHANAEL RANEW at the Kings-Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard PRactical Preparation for Death the Interest and Wisdom of Christians the Folly and Misery of those that are negligent therein The great benefits of a life spent in a daily preparation for our latter end with Motives and Directions for the Performance thereof Recommended as proper to be given at Funerals Twelves The Glory and Happiness of the Saints in Heaven Or a Discourse concerning the Blessed State of the Righteous after Death With Motives and Encouragements unto all Christians to secure to themselves an Interest therein Twelves The Virtuous Woman or the Life of Mary Countess of Warwick With some of her Ladiships Pious Reflections on several Scriptures and Meditations on several Subjects Twelves The Holy Life of Mrs. Elizabeth Walker late Wife of Dr. Anthony Walker Octavo The great Evil and Danger of Procrastination or delaying our Repentance in four Funeral Sermons by Anthony Walker Twelves An Exposition on the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments with several Sermons on divers Subjects By Ezekiel Hopkins late Lord Bishop of London-derry Quarto
Service shall have his Quietus very speedily The Watch-man shall not stand Centinel long some Disease or some other means will call him off his Watch and then every Act of his careful Industry and Zeal for God shall be infinitely Rewarded Of many a Faithful Pastor it may be said as Jacob express'd himself concerning the restless Fatigue he underwent in securing Laban's Flock Gen. 31. 40. Gen. 31. 40. Thus I was in the day the Drought consumed me and the Frost by night and my sleep departed from mine Eyes The difficulty of our Work will give us many laborious days and our too little success may well bring upon us many restless nights And indeed the utmost Application and Earnestness of our Head and Heart day and night is little enough in order to finish our course with Joy For when we consider the Immortality of the Souls under our care and that Christ purchased them with his own Blood And that we are plac'd by the Great God as Overseers of them And finally That the guilt of so deplorable a Ruine as the infinite Misery of an everlasting Soul will be imputable to us if through our negligence it miscarries I say when we are duly sensible of these tremendous things we cannot think any pains too great to save a Soul from Exquisite Eternal Torment nor to spend a few drops of sweat in labouring to pull Men out of the Claws of the Devil when for this very thing our Blessed Lord shed Showers of his Blood These Thoughts will make every tender Pastor put himself out to the utmost And the less rest we take here the sweeter will be our everlasting repose above The cool Evening of Death draws on when the Limbs of the weary shall be at rest and shall never be disturb'd more The same propitious Hand which wipes away the Tears from the Eyes of the disconsolate Christian will wipe away the Sweat from the Brows of the Painful And then there 's a full end of their Labours and Sorrows No more hard Hearts to grieve their tender Bowels no more filthy Conversations to vex their Righteous Souls But undisturbed Joys abound even to exultation for evermore This then is an Expression of God's infinite Goodness and Compassion to his Faithful Ministers in that the infliction of Death is a dismission from their Labours Which will surther appear 2. In that by Death they are secured from the Malice of their Enemies For 't is no new thing that the most inoffensive life should meet with Enmity from the World We must not think to fare better than our Master who was thus Treated all his life long and being brought to his Death by the same malicious Enmity of wicked Men he told his Followers what they must expect from this evil World John 15. 21. The Dispositions and Interests and John 15. 21. Ways of good and bad Men are diametrically opposite and when there 's such a Constitutional difference of Inclinations and thwarting of Roads there are like to be many differences and then 't is easie to say who will be greatest sufferers either the few harmless Pilgrims that are so far from doing an Injury that they would not return one to gain the whole World Or a numerous Company of Passionate Proud Envious and Violent Men who take pleasure in unrighteousness From some of these every one that will live Godly in Christ Jesus must expect at some time or other to suffer Tribulation in some measure as both our Saviour and his Apostles have fore-told and as their own Sufferings fore-shew'd Yet one would indeed have thought that the Almighty God had sufficiently secured his Prophets from Violence when he had given such a peculiar Charge that they should do his Prophets no harm Psal 105. 15. And when Jeroboam's Passion Psal 105. 15. had transported him so far beyond the measures of Equity as to stretch forth his hand against a Prophet of the Lord his injurious Arm was instantly wither'd so that he could not pull it in to him again 1 Kings 13. 4. So that God reprov'd even Kings for 1 Kings 13. 4. their sakes And on the other side who could have thought but that every Body would have been kind and obliging to the Prophets when God had promis'd That so small a kindness as a Cup of cold water given to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet should not be unrewarded Matth. 10. 42. Considering Matth. 10. 42. withall That this was a promise made by that infinite Remunerator who gives whole Cities for the improvement of some petty Pounds Luke 19. Luke 19. 17. 17. Yet alas notwithstanding the Great God had both promis'd and threatned so highly in the behalf of his Prophets through what Vollies of Reproaches and Defiles of Injuries did they usually run their Course And through what painful and bloody Deaths did the most of them make their entrance into Glory Isaiah is said to be sawn asunder Jeremiah to be stoned to Death Ezechiel is reported to be slain by the Captain of the Jews at Babylon Amos his Brains beaten out by Amasias the Idolatrous Priest of Bethel Micah's Neck broken by Joram the Son of Ahab And to name no more Zechariah the Pen-man of the words of the Text is suppos'd to be the Prophet of whom our Blessed Saviour says He was slain betwixt the Porch and the Altar Matth. 23. 35. There being no other Zecharias the Son of Matth. 23. 35. Barachias mentioned in the Scriptures save this Prophet whose Genealogy is thus Recorded Zech. 1. 1. In the Eighth Month came the Word of the Lord to Zechariah the Son of Barachiah c. Many more Instances of this Nature are Collected by Epiphanius in his Account of the Lives of the Prophets And if we look into that Sacred Book which ought to be in our Hands every day we shall there find that the Holy Apostle sped no better And the Histories of those times assure us That hardly any one of them died otherwise than by a violent Death some were Crucify'd some Ston'd some slain with the Sword others had their Brains beat out with Clubs In so much that one of them Writes 1 Cor. 1 Cor. 4. 9. 4. 9. God seems to have sent out us the Apostles last as Men appointed to be slain A sort of forlorn Squadrons who made the first Effort against the Powerful Patrons of Sin and Attact Wickedness seated in high places who soon shew'd their Powerful Wrath against such as durst disturb their haughty Lusts John Baptist's Faithful Reproof of Herod's Adultery cost him his Head the Jewish Sanhedrim being reproov'd by St. Stephen for their blood-guiltiness they gnash upon him with their Teeth as if they 'd worry him as indeed they soon did Acts 7. 54. Acts 7. 54. And some of St. Paul's Hearers became his Enemies because he told them the Truth Gal. 4. 16. Gal. 4. 16. But the Messengers of God find wellcome
nor the Faithfullest discharge of it can be any Protection from Death This is sad News to this dark World That the Lights of it will so soon be put out And this alas is the sad cause of the present Mourning and Grief of this place Death hath closed those Compassionate Hands which so often Administred to your Wants and ended that Fatherly Care which so peculiarly consulted the Interests of your particular Persons and Families And what 's the saddest of all alas That Mouth which so often and so servently treated of the Great Things of God's Law in your Ears is now lock'd up in perfect silence till the Resurrection The Prophets are Mortals They do not live for ever So that the observable point in which the words instruct us is That the greatest Eminency in the Church below Prop. is no exemption from the Mortality common to Men. The Prophets are not Angels by Nature though they are Angels by Office as they are term'd Rev. 2. 1. as being the Messengers of God to the Churches and bringing them Tidings from Heaven But their Breath is in their Nostrils and is as soon blown out as other Mens The Text suggests That the Prophets do not live for ever Indeed the Faithful shall in the best sense live for ever For our Blessed Saviour The Truth and the Life has promised that such as believe in him shall never John 11. 26. die John 11. 26. They shall live for ever in his Presence and Kingdom So that if the Atheist should put the Question in the Text as a Scoff or Taunt The words are answerable in the affirmative The Prophets do and will live for ever in Beatifick Glory They are not capable of Diseases or Revel 21. 4. Death there Rev. 21. 4. There is no more Death nor Sorrow nor Crying neither shall there be any more Pain The Holy Prophets may be here excruciated with the grinding Pains of the Stone and Gout and Cholick and other acute Distempers But when once they put off their Corruptible all 's well All Humane Maladies are driven away by the Glorious Presence of God as Shadows when there is nothing to interpose betwixt them and the Sun So that it is very happy for the Faithful Servants of God that they are so soon to remove from this State of Darkness and Discord and Sin and Misery And indeed Eminency of Grace is so far from being a Protection from Death that it is often a Token of short Life The higher we grow in Grace the nearer we approach to Glory Enoch walked a Heavenly pace and God took him speedily to that place for which he was fit The Church here is but as an under-School to fit us for the Church above and when the Master sees Men such Proficients in Grace as to be fit for Glory he removes them and then they throw by their Mortal Flesh as graduates Shift the Habits of their Minor-State This is that Periodical Change which all the Prophets except Enoch and Elijah and all the Evangelists and Apostles underwent For though some thought that St. John was exempted from Death and some vain People would yet perswade us That he is even to this day walking about yet we find he did not think so himself Nor did our Saviour ever say he should not die as John 21. 23. we read John 21. 23. The extravagant pretence of the Wandering Jew not many years since was something like this who confidently affirm'd that he kept the door of the Hall where our Blessed Saviour was condemned at the time of his Trial before Pilate And that Christ for some roughness of carriage towards him destin'd him to live till his coming to Judgment and that he had been a Pilgrim in all parts of the World ever since and been an Eye-witness to the Destruction of Jerusalem and the greatest Transactions of the World ever since This I say was too palpable an Impostor or rather Madness to deceive any but such as were as Brain-sick as himself Let me speak freely says St. Peter of the Patriarch David That he is both dead and buried and his Sepulcre is with us unto this day Acts 2. 29. So Great a Progenitor and so Eminent a Type of the Messiah was compelled to yield to the necessary Decays and Decease of Natural Life His Lamp burnt long indeed and in a leisurely manner consum'd the Vital Moisture and Warmth those Stamina Vitae but it was at last extinguish'd or rather went out of it self And thus you see the scope of the Doctrine in the Text illustrated That the greatest Eminency in God's Church here is no exemption from the common Mortality Which great Truth I shall endeavour to improve and apply these two ways 1. Shewing how the Goodness and Wisdom of God's Providence appears in the Deaths of good Men particularly of Ministers 2. What use both Ministers and People ought to make of this Dispensation I begin to shew that the Goodness and Wisdom of God is seen in a peculiar manner in the Death of Faithful Ministers which may turn our Complaints of the severity of God's Providences into Admiration and Praise of the infinite Wisdom and Goodness which directed and dispensed them For 1. The Graciousness of God's Providence appears in the Death of Faithful Ministers in that God hereby gives them rest from their Labours The Laborious and Stedfast Servants of God are encourag'd by a Voice from Heaven to go on cheerfully in their present Labours in hope of the rest to come Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the Dead which die in the Revel 14. 13. Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit That they may rest from their Labours Now a Faithful Minister is not only a Labourer but a Labourer in Harvest Matth. 9. 38. a time in which every one Matth 9. 38. puts out his strength to the utmost We are gathering up the Wheat in Christ's Field and there are many Adversaries interrupting and retarding our Work The envious Legions of Darkness are deluding and destroying of multitudes and what is worse too many love to have it so We see their pernicious ways and who leads them on in them yet all our Calls and Cries in their Ears will not make them consider and amend they love the works of Darkness and seem to value Temptations to Destruction This is that which makes our Labours very Afflictive as it was at once the Grief and Anger of our Supreme Pastor in the days of his Flesh Mark 3. 5. He look'd round Mark 3. 5. about on them with Anger being griev'd for the hardness of their Hearts Alas too great a part of our usual Audience are no more affected with the great Promises and Threatnings of God's Book than if we spake to the Graves of those who have been long dead However 't is our Great Master's Will that we Labour in Season and out of Season And the Laborious Minister who spends and is spent in God's
above when they meet with none on Earth God calls them away as an affronted Prince calls away his Ambassador from a Foreign Court not in Displeasure to his Servant but in Anger to the place he leaves 3. The great wisdom and awful Righteousness of God's Providence appears in the Death of Faithful Ministers in that this is a means of bringing them to render an Account of their Ambassy at the Court of Heaven They watch for your Souls says St. Paul as they that must give an Account Heb. 13. 17. We Heb. 13. 17. must at last declare before the Judge of the World How faithfully we have promulged the Will of God How impartially we have reproved Sin How industriously we have watch'd over Souls And with what serious earnestness we have further'd their Salvation God grant that this may be to our Comfort and not Confusion We are God's Leiger-Ambassadors in our several Parishes and must expect to be call'd home ere long to make Report how we have negotiated the grand Interests of our Master's Kingdom And then says the Prophet Such as have turn'd many to Righteousness shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12. 3. 4. The Wisdom and Goodness of God appears in the Deaths of Faithful Ministers in that their People are likely to be much awaken'd by and confirm'd in the Truths of God attested and apply'd by their dying Lips 'T is the Argument of Tertullian in his Apology for the Christians That of all the Thousands of them that were put to Death yet none of them died without a Zealous Confession of the Truth of the Christian Religion affirming with their last Breath That it was the Wisdom and Power of God to Salvation So that usually very numerous Conversions were made by the constancy of their Dying Confessions At Death even the vainest of Men are usually serious With how much greater weight then will every Sentence of good Men drop from their dying Lips Their Faith is almost Vision So that they may be said to stand on the brink of the other World and seeing the great things there they turn about to acquaint the standers-by what a Righteous Judge there is in the Neighbouring World What an All-sufficient Saviour What a Beatifick Paradise where infinite Vollies of Hallelujahs and Triumphant Joys abound for evermore And finally what a tremendous Tophet is prepared where the Worm never dies and the Fire is never quenched Thus methinks the dying Servants of God may like Sampson slay more of God's Enemies at their Death than in their whole Life And in these last Efforts of Devout Men against Impiety I dare assure the People of this place That their Deceased Pastor would have been very earnest and very copious Had it not pleased God that he should so suddenly and at such a distance be deprived of his precious Life But the Will of God is ever Adorable That thought must stifle all the Complaints which our wounded Affections are apt to make in such Trials And we must ever own God's Sovereign Providence not only with submissive Silence but entire Satisfaction 5. And lastly The Wisdom and Goodness of God's Providence appears in the Deaths of Faithful Pastors in that hereby opportunity is administred to others of God's Witnesses to come and confirm the same Truths God sends Prophet after Prophet Minister after Minister rising early and sending them Jer. 44. 4. Jer. 44. 4. As it were Storming a sturdy Heart by fresh assaults that so being encompassed with so great an Army of Champions Valiant for the Truth the most obstinate sinner might think of Surrender especially considering that all these will be Witnesses for us or against us at the last day Thus we see what excellent ends an All-Wise and All-Good Providence brings about even in those Dispensations which we think the most fore and severe and therefore we have reason to say when the good Hand of God takes away as well as when it gives Blessed be the Name of the Lord. Les us now apply all as it was proposed First to Ministers themselves And Secondly to their People First to Ministers themselves If no Eminency in God's Church can secure us from Death and Judgment for the Prophets cannot live for ever here Let us then as we shall answer it to the Great God discharge the Duties of our Sacred Office with all possible diligence and exactness We have but a little time to do a great deal of difficult work We have the dark minds of Men under God to enlighten Hearts of Stone to soften and warm many a stray Sheep to reduce and many a Prey to snatch out of the Devil's Teeth and to bring into Christ's Fold Ah! What a difficult Task has that Shepherd who has a numerous Flock to over-look and sees Wolves breaking in on every side and carrying away a great part of his Flock the rest also being apt to straggle and run into Snares and perhaps he finds little assistance from others but much discouragement This alas is our very Case and except we put out our utmost Diligence and Courage we may probably lose many a Soul that might otherwise have been saved For the Devil is the more diligent in deceiving and destroying as knowing He has but a short time Revel 12. 12. And Revel 12. 12. except we are moved by the same consideration what Ravage will the Destroyer make and 't will be very said if through our sloath or sin any Soul be lost for which Christ died Let us then labour to strengthen the weak Christian and to establish the wavering and to restore the lapsed and even the best will need a share in our Conduct but none more than the Tempted the Doubtful and the Dying Oh! what work is here for a frail Mortal Man in the due discharge of his Ministerial Vows We may well say Who is sufficient for these mighty things May the Thoughts of these Difficulties then add an edge to our Industry and since we have but a little time here let us advance our Master's Work and Interest with all our might This is the principal thing we have to mind and ought to be uppermost in our Mind and Heart day and night It was a moving consideration to our Blessed Saviour himself to think that he had but a little time to be in this World John 9. 4. I must work the works of John 9. 4. him that sent me whilst it's day the night cometh when no Man can work And with what Zeal did St. Peter exhort and stir up the Affections of his People Knowing says he that I must shortly put off this Tabernacle 2 Pet. 1. 14. And Oh! That this weighty 2 Pet. 1. 14. Thought filled our Heart every time we either spake to the Great God or to Men in his Name What Fervour would it give to our Prayers and what Life to our Sermons And in these things I do not question but the Life of this our